Video and Transcript: Obama Envoy George Mitchell on Israeli-Palestinian Talks (14 September)

MR. MITCHELL: Today’s meeting lasted about one hour and forty minutes. The meeting involved Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Abbas, Secretary of State Clinton, and myself. We all are grateful to President Mubarak, to Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit, and to the Egyptian Government for their courtesy and hospitality in arranging these meetings and for their continued strong support for President Obama’s vision of comprehensive peace in the Middle East. The day began with President Mubarak hosting separate bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Abbas, and Secretary Clinton. The Secretary also met bilaterally with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. This was followed by the multilateral meeting, which I’ve just described. And as soon as I complete this briefing, I will attend with the other leaders a lunch hosted by President Mubarak for all of the participants.

Today, the parties have begun a serious discussion on core issues. President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu also reiterated their intent to approach these negotiations in good faith and with a seriousness of purpose.

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Video and Transcript: US State Department on Israeli-Palestinian Talks (14 September)

QUESTION: Envoy Mitchell told reporters today that we are making progress. How substantive is this progress? How is it different, let’s say, from two weeks ago? And what was discussed as first item on the agenda? Was it the settlement or the Jewishness of the state?

STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN P.J. CROWLEY: I had the opportunity to converse with the team this morning. I think we would characterize the discussions today as serious and direct discussions on the core issues. Those discussions will continue tomorrow.

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Turkey: Honouring a Basketball Team With People's Taxes

Ali Yenidunya With A US Player Who Did Not Receive His Tax MoneyLast week, Turkey's basketball team reached the final of the 2010 World Championship. After the Turks hammered Serbia in the semi-finals, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan --- a day before the referendum on 26 amendments to the Constitution ---- announced that 1.5 million Turkish Lira ($1 Million) would be given to the team due to its success. The total amount of 28 million TL ($18.7 million) promised by the head of Turkey was handed over in a cheque to the captain of the team, Hidayet Turkoglu, a member of the Phoenix Suns in the US National Basketball Association.

An admission, dear reader: in the final match, I belonged to the very small minority in Turkey who supported the USA with all of our hearts. And our wallets --- can you imagine the debt/tax burden if Turkey had won the cup?

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US Solves Afghanistan "Corruption": Turning Karzai the Poacher Into Karzai the Gamekeeper (Mazzetti/Nordland)

"Poacher Turned Gamekeeper": Someone who gets a legitimate job which is the opposite of their previous one....

After weeks of in-fighting in the Obama Administration over how to deal with the issue of "corruption" and relations with the Afghan Government, Mark Mazzetti and Rod Nordland of The New York Times write about a possible resolution: instead of targeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the alleged financial misdeeds, make him the Sheriff of Responsibility:

The Obama administration is debating whether to make Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, a more central player in efforts to root out corruption in his own government, including giving him more oversight of graft investigators and notifying him before any arrests, according to senior American officials.

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UPDATE US Politics: Delaware (and Others) Vote for the Tea Party

p>Yesterday, EA's US Politics correspondent Lee Haddigan took a close look at the bitterly-disputed Republican primary for the US Senate in the small state of Delaware. Reviewing the battle between the "establishment" candidate Mark Castle and the Tea Party's choice, Christine O'Donnell, Haddigan concluded: "When the state returns to obscurity after the primary, at least until next month, there will be injuries from this surprisingly nasty struggle that will not be forgiven or forgotten, inside and outside the state."

Maybe, but this morning, O'Donnell is celebrating victory. And the Tea Party has another claim for success in New York, where their favourite Carl Paladino defeated Rick Lazio in the Republican primary for Governor.

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Iran Analysis: Is Rafsanjani Ready for a Fight?

UPDATE 1725 GMT: Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi says "the file remains open" in the case of Mehdi Hashemi, Hashemi Rafsanjani's son. Iranian authorities have threatened to arrest Mehdi Hashemi, who currently lives in London, if he returns to Iran.

Raffers is back. Possibly.

Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani used the bi-annual meeting of the Assembly of Experts, which he heads, to put out a rather pointed challenge to the Government yesterday.

So President Ahmadinejad thinks he can wave away sanctions as a "used hanky"? Not so fast, said Rafsanjani: "Throughout the revolution, we never had so many sanctions (imposed on Iran) and I am calling on you and all officials to take the sanctions seriously and not as jokes....Over the past 30 years we had a war and military threats, but never have we seen such arrogance to plan a calculated assault against us."

Sure, that's a headline slap at "the West", but it's also the signal of a lack of confidence in both the President's politics and his skills at managing the economy.

So, is Rafsanjani ready to rumble?

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China Economy Weekly: "Open to Foreign Firms" and Imports, Agreement with Taiwan, Inflation at 22-Month High

China "Open to Foreign Firms": Vice President Xi Jinping has said that China is taking vigorous steps to create a more open, optimal environment for foreign enterprises.

Xi made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 2nd World Investment Forum  in Xiamen City in southeast China's Fujian Province.

 Foreign direct investment this year is set to "surpass $100 billion", compared to $90 billion dollars last year, an official with China's Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday.

Moving in the other direction, China is now fifth in outbound direct investment with a total volume of $56.5 billion, compared to a ranking of 12th in 2008.

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The Latest from Iran (15 September): Ahmadinejad and His Challenges

1710 GMT: Ahmadinejad's Foreign Policy Move --- A Reminder (see 1310 and 1325 GMT). The Associated Press, for inexplicable reasons, is reporting that the President has "demoted" six aides from "senior envoys" to "advisors" for international affairs.

No, that's not a demotion, that's just another name for Ahmadinejad's staff as they take on foreign policy posts. (And AP might have noted that the President, far from backing down in the face of the Supreme Leader's criticism, has added two envoys-now-advisors to the four he originally named.)

And while we're talking who is trying to claim Iran's foreign policy, let's note a statement from the office of one of Ahmadinejad's Vice Presidents: it was the President who took the final decision on the release of US hiker Sarah Shourd, acting "for humanitarian reasons".

1700 GMT: Oil Squeeze (Subsidy Cut Edition). Tehran has postponed increasing the price of gasoline, despite the subsidy cut plan which was to be implemented next week.

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Iran: An Open Letter on Haystack and Human Rights (Shahryar)

This week the testing of Haystack, a highly-publicised system seeking to provide access to the Internet --- free from surveillance and filtering --- to Iranians, was suspended amidst security concerns and criticism of both the technology and the promotion of the initiative.

Josh Shahryar reflects and responds in this open letter:

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Turkey's Referendum: What Was the Question Again? (Alpan)

The new constitution, supported by 58% of the voters, is not a resolution of the 12 September 1980 coup d’état. Setting capital against labour and the Executive against legislators and the judiciary can hardly achieve that.

It is not yet clear how the social forces of the Turkish political landscape will react to the new constitution but it is crystal-clear that neither the ‘yes’ side nor the ‘no’ side won at yesterday’s referendum. All of us --- except for the Executive and the business world, with its obsession with "stability" --- lost.

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